Thursday, February 18, 2010

David Petraeus talks about the inspiration that he drew from Ulysses Grant's famous replay at the end of the battle of Shiloh. It's always been one of my favorite Civil War quotes. After a day of desperate fighting when the Union had been pushed back to the river and Grant was standing in the rain, smoking a cigar, surrounded by the sounds of his wounded men. Sherman approached and said "We had the devil's own day, Grant." And Grant just took his cigar out of his mouth and said "We'll lick them tomorrow though." Petraeus said that he took a lot of inspiration in fighting the insurgency in Iraq by thinking of that Grant quote. It's an inspiration that anyone in a tough situation could draw on.

Mort Zuckerman is supposedly talking to the New York GOP about entering the race against Kirsten Gillibrand for that Senate seat. If he did decide to throw his hat and his millions into the ring, that could transform that race. I don't know why anyone of his wealth and attainment would want to serve in the Senate. Didn't he hear Evan Bayh talking about how the Senate wasn't the place for someone who is an executive by nature?

North Carolina has just finished absorbing the stories of the corruption of our former governor's campaigns and administration as supporters found ways to funnel money to him. So far none of the scandals have touched our current governor, Bev Perdue, but now the NC GOP has gotten the elections board to investigate a pattern of contributions to Perdue that parallel the way in which money was funneled to her predecessor, Mike Easley.

Daniel Henninger tells the politicians of Washington that "it's the spending, America" that is angering so many people around the country. Henninger offers up this startling chart.The people are screaming that we've reached the point where the federal government has tipped over into spending too much and trying to absorb too many responsibilities, but Obama and the Democrats don't seem to be listening.Pat Caddell pulls back the curtain on how the SEIU can dictate to Democratic politicians whom they use on their campaigns. And, apparently, someone like Caddell who called the SEIU thugs, is persona non grata.Karl Rove has some smart advice for the Tea Partiers - don't ally with either the Republican or Democratic Parties. They will have more leverage if they hold themselves independent and are a burr in the sides of both parties.Matthew Continetti cuts through the Democratic spin on their stimulus bill. The Democrats refuse to admit that they wrote a pork-laden bill, back-loaded bill that didn't focus on providing jobs but instead on helping states preserve jobs for public employees. While that may have been worthwhile for those employees, was it really how that bill was sold to voters?

The accuser who lied her way to creating the whole Duke lacrosse fiasco, is now back in the news as she was arrested on charges for "five counts of arson, simple assault, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer and three counts of child endangerment." E.J. Dionne admits it:

If you want to be honest, face these facts: At this moment, President Obama is losing, Democrats are losing and liberals are losing.

And they only have themselves to blame, not that Dionne would admit it.

And USA Today reports that stimulus funds are going to programs that the Obama administration is trying to eliminate. The administration's two left hands don't know what the other is doing. And check out their handy chart of what the stimulus money has been spent on and you'll understand why the stimulus didn't stimulate - just as critics claimed it wouldn't when it was first being debated. The Democrats will be bemoaning their lost opportunities from pushing through that bill for a long time and that is why Dionne is forced to chastise his party today.

I was going to say, in regards to the Duke dudette, that Bush made her do it. But I realized that it was the patriarchy the made her set her boyfriend's clothes on fire as a symbol of her raised consciousness. Unfortunately, for the boyfriend, he was stilll wearing them at the time. Right on, Sister!

House majority leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, today will talk about the changing landscape and how today's GOP leaders can govern differently than previous Democrats and Republicans.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you help elect a Republican Congress this November, and I'm fortunate enough to be elected Speaker of the House, I pledge to you right here and now: we're going to run the House differently. And I don't just mean differently than the way Democrats are running it now. I mean differently than it's been run in the past under Democrats OR Republicans,"

it appears the net outcome of the tea party movement will be trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome

Yeah, how to explain the rock solid prediction that the Republicans would be a regional rump party, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, and that healthcare reform was a done deal? But the TV might explain that he, like Rip Van Winkle, missed all the recent fun.